1853-62.] CENTEAL TABLE-LAND : FIVE DISTRICTS. 225 



| ing Cotton. It is made use of when Jonna is sown, 

 which is much more remunerative ; and as Jonna ought 



. not to be grown two successive years on the same land, 

 Cotton is substituted. The Cotton stalks are cut and 

 used as fuel ; sometimes they are placed with earth over 



] them, as a protection to walls [of houses] from the mon- 



( soon rains. 



Diseases. — " Cotton plants when weakened by un- 352 

 seasonable rains, suffer from the effects of a mildew, 

 I which covers the green leaf with white spots, and then 

 i the plant being thus weakened is speedily attacked by 

 i insects, grasshoppers, etc., and destroyed. Another 

 i species of blight causes honey dew to exude from the 

 j plant, which greatly weakens it. In January, should 

 ] there be cloudy weather and rain whilst the pods are 

 j forming, they are very liable to drop off and the produce 

 , to be injured." 



(4) Salem : Messrs. Fischer and Co., the only ex- 353 

 ■porters. — The Cotton lands under cultiva- Letter of Mr 



i tion in this district are rather more than Brett, uth 

 15,000 acres. Messrs. Fischer and Co. are Dec " 186L 

 ] the only persons in the district who buy Cotton for 

 , exportation, and the views of Mr. Fischer pa g8 

 i upon the subject have already been exhi- 

 bited. The Collector adds that good roads intersect 

 | the district in all directions, and that the lands on 

 i which the Cotton is chiefly grown are for the most part 

 within twenty-five or thirty miles of the South- Western 

 Railway. 



(5) Coimbatore : detailed report of Mr. Thomas, 354 

 the Collector. — In this important district, the scene of 

 Dr. Wight's labours, upwards of 120,000 acres are 

 under Cotton cultivation. The report of Mr. Thomas 



in reply to Professor Mallett's application Mr>Thomas > s 

 is rather lengthy, but exhibits so many plain letter, isth 

 and practical details, that it has been ex- ■ Dec '' 1857 ' 

 pedient to print it in extenso, merely omitting certain 

 data which have already been exhibited so prominently 

 in the summary of Dr. Wight's reports, as to require 

 no repetition here. 

 Soil: Black, Eed, and Alluvium. — "The soils on 355 



